United Nations of Cinema: 87 Films Compete for the International Feature Oscar

The 87 submissions for this year’s Academy Award for international feature mark a drop-off from the last few record-setting years when that number has been consistently in the 90s. Whether this is an immediate reaction to the Academy’s rule change mandating that at least 50% of every national selection committee needs to be made up of “artists and or craftspeople from the field of motion pictures” is an open question. But the big-hitters remain in the race and so, pending the official confirmation of the eligibility of the below from the Academy, here is the full international feature submissions list for the 96th Academy Awards. The 15-title shortlist is slated to arrive on Dec. 21, prior to the nominations announcement on Jan. 23 and the ceremony itself, which is dated for March 10.

ALBANIA
Alexander
Director: Ardit Sadiku
LOGLINE: A documentary about an engineer who, after being fired by the navy for dissidence, hijacked a warship to get himself an dhis family to freedom.
PRODCO: Ardit Sadiku Film

ARGENTINA
The Delinquents
Director: Rodrigo Moreno
LOGLINE: A ticklish, gently surreal saga following two colleagues who collude in robbing the bank where they work.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Mubi

ARMENIA
Amerikatsi
Director: Michael A. Goorjian
LOGLINE: An Armenian-American relocates to Armenia after WWII and ends up in a Soviet prison for the crime of wearing a tie.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Variance Films

AUSTRALIA
Shayda
Director: Noora Niasari
LOGLINE: A Sundance Audience Award-winning drama following an Iranian immigrant struggling to raise her daughter in a women’s shelter. 
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Sony Pictures Classics

AUSTRIA
Vera
Director: Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
LOGLINE: Vera Gemma, the daughter of an Italian icon, strikes up an intense relationship with a poor kid she injures in a traffic accident.
INT’L SALES: Be For Films

BANGLADESH
No Ground Beneath the Feet
Director: Mohammad Rabby Mridha
LOGLINE: Ambulance driver Saiful pivots between his two wives and a brother who all need help he can’t afford to give. 
INT’L SALES: Impress Telefilm

BELGIUM
Omen
Director: Baloji
LOGLINE: A Congolese man returns to Kinshasa with his pregnant white wife to pay a dowry to the family who regard him as cursed.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Utopia

BHUTAN
The Monk and the Gun
Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji
LOGLINE: An American encounters a Bhutanese monk who has a valuable rifle in the second film from the Oscar-nominated “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” filmmaker.
INT’L SALES: UTA 

BOLIVIA
The Visitor
Director: Martín Boulocq
LOGLINE: A wake singer recently released from jail fights his Evangelical pastor father-in-law for custody of his daughter. 
PRODCO: CQ Films

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Excursion
Director: Una Gunjak
LOGLINE: A high schooler gets caught in her own spiralling lie which has consequences for her and her whole class. 
INT’L SALES: Salaud Morisset

BRAZIL
Pictures of Ghosts
Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
LOGLINE: A wry, wistful documentary, featuring the filmmaker’s personal archival footage, tracing his relationship with the disappeared cinemas of Recife.
INT’L SALES: Urban Sales

BURKINA FASO
Sira
Director: Apolline Traoré
LOGLINE: A revenge tale in which a young nomad in North Africa fights for survival after she is kidnapped by Islamist terrorists.
INT’L SALES: Wide

BULGARIA
Blaga’s Lessons
Director: Zaynê Akyol
LOGLINE: A 70-year-old widow, conned out of her life savings by a phone scam, turns scammer herself to even the score.
INT’L SALES: Heretic

CANADA
Rojek
Director: Zaynê Akyol
LOGLINE: Imprisoned former member of the Islamic State provide powerful testimony about their experiences of conflict in Syrian Kurdistan.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Icarus Films

CHILE
The Settlers
Director: Felipe Gálvez Haberle
LOGLINE: An Indigenous guide rides south with an English captain and an American mercenary to fence off land granted to a ruthless Spanish landowner.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Mubi

COLOMBIA
A Male
Director: Fabián Hernández Alvarado 
LOGLINE: A young man living in a youth shelter braves the urban culture of machismo to spend Christmas with his mother and sister.
INT’L SALES: Cercamon

COSTA RICA
I Have Electric Dreams
Director: Valentina Maurel
LOGLINE: 16-year-old Eva lives with her mother, younger sister and cat, but longs to move in with her estranged father.
INT’L SALES: Heretic

CROATIA
Traces
Director: Dubravka Turic
LOGLINE: An anthropologist experiences an identity crisis after her father’s death leaves her the last surviving member of her family.
PRODCO: Kinorama

CZECH REPUBLIC
Brothers
Director: Tomáš Mašín
LOGLINE: The true story of two brothers who tried to escape communist Czechoslovakia in 1953 to join the US army in West Berlin.
INT’L SALES: The Yellow Affair

DENMARK
The Promised Land
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
LOGLINE: Mads Mikkelsen stars in a rousing historical epic about a land battle between a commoner and a noble. 
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Magnolia Pictures

EGYPT
Voy! Voy! Voy!
Director: Omar Hilal
LOGLINE: An impoverished security guard poses as blind in order to play at the Blind Soccer World Championships in Europe. 
INT’L SALES: Vox Studios

ESTONIA
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Director: Anna Hints
LOGLINE: A lyrical documentary observing the women who frequent a traditional Estonian sauna for healing and community.
INT’L SALES: Autlook

FINLAND
Fallen Leaves
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
LOGLINE: A droll romance develops between a struggling part-time worker and an alcoholic builder.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Mubi

FRANCE
The Taste of Things
Director: Trần Anh Hùng
LOGLINE: Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel illuminate a lavish 19th-century “gastromance” between a cook and her gourmet employer.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: IFC Distribution

GEORGIA
Citizen Saint
Director: Tinatin Kajrishvili
LOGLINE: When a revered statue of a local saint disappears it spurs a crisis of faith in a Georgian mining community.
INT’L SALES: Studio Artizm

GERMANY
The Teachers’ Lounge
Director: İlker Çatak
LOGLINE: An idealistic high school teacher faces spiraling consequences when one of her students is accused of stealing.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Sony Pictures Classics

GREECE
Behind the Haystacks
Director: Asimina Proedrou
LOGLINE: A local family living on Greece’s northern border face difficult personal choices in the wake of a tragic incident.
INT’L SALES: TVCO

HONG KONG
A Light Never Goes Out
Director: Anastasia Tsang
LOGLINE: The devastated wife of a master neon signmmaker takes up his passion as her own following his death.
INT’L SALES: Edko Films

HUNGARY
Four Souls of Coyote
Director: Áron Gauder
LOGLINE: An animation following a band of Native American teenagers who confront an oil pipeline project  while will affect their ancestral land.
INT’L SALES: NFI World Sales

ICELAND
Godland
Director: Hlynur Pálmason
LOGLINE: A 19th-century Danish priest is sent to Iceland to establish a new parish but finds his faith challenged by the hardships of rural life. 
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Janus Films

INDIA
2018
Director: Jude Anthany Joseph
LOGLINE: A disaster film set during the 2018 Kerala floods in which people from all walks of life collectively try to survive the ensuing chaos.
PRODCO: Anto Joseph Film Co.

INDONESIA
Autobiography
Director: Makbul Mubarak
LOGLINE: The callow young assistant and housekeeper to a retired general running for local election learns firsthand about Indonesian corruption.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Amazon Prime Video

IRAN
The Night Guardian
Director: Reza Mirkarimi
LOGLINE: A naive village boy’s quiet life is challenged when he encounters the engineer of a construction project.
INT’L SALES: Banoo Film

IRAQ
Hanging Gardens
Director: Ahmed Yassin Aldaradji
LOGLINE: A young Iraqi’s life is upended when he rescues a sex doll from the Baghdad rubbish dumps where he works. 
INT’L SALES: True Colours

IRELAND 
In the Shadow of Beirut
Director: Stephen Gerard Kelly, Garry Keane
LOGLINE: Modern-day Lebanon as seen through the eyes of four families living in the impoverished neighborhoods where aninfamous 1982 massacre occurred.
PRODCO: Abbout Prods.

ISRAEL
Seven Blessings
Director: Ayelet Menahemi
LOGLINE: In early ’90s Jerusalem a boisterous Jewish-Moroccan family celebrate their togetherness while also hiding painful secrets. 
PRODCO: Ronen Ben-Tal Films

ITALY
Io Capitano
Director: Matteo Garrone
LOGLINE: Two young men embark on an epic odyssey from Dakar to Europe in a Venice Best Director-winning migrant drama.
INT’L SALES: Pathé

JAPAN
Perfect Days
Director: Wim Wenders
LOGLINE: A contented Tokyo restroom cleaner with a simple, structured everyday life has a series of unexpected encounters.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Neon

JORDAN
Inshallah a Boy
Director: Amjad Al Rasheed
LOGLINE: The walls of Jordanian patriarchy close in quickly on the recently widowed mother of a small daughter.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Greenwich Entertainment

KENYA
Mvera
Director: Daudi Anguka
LOGLINE: A woman embarks on a crusade against an organ-trafficking ring operating in her small coastal town mear Mombasa.
PRODCO: AR Films Prod.

KYRGYZSTAN
This is What I Remember
Director: Aktan Arym Kubat
LOGLINE: A man who lost his memory while working in Russia and returns to Kyrgyzstan for the first time in 20 years.
INT’L SALES: Diversion

LATVIA
My Freedom
Director: Ilze Kunga-Melgaile
LOGLINE: A free-thinking and charismatic activist becomes a star of the Latvian National Awakening, which brings tough choices in her private life.
PRODCO: Tasse Films, M-Films

LITHUANIA
Slow
Director: Marija Kavtaradzė
LOGLINE: A dancer and a sign-language interpreter build their own kind of intimacy pursuing an unconventional relationship. 
INT’L SALES: Totem Films

LUXEMBOURG
The Last Ashes
Director: Loïc Tanson
LOGLINE: Hélène returns to her native village under a new identity on a mission of revenge against the powerful local Graff family.
PRODCO: Artémis Prods., Samsa Films

MALAYSIA
Tiger Stripes
Director: Amanda Nell Eu
LOGLINE: A carefree 11-year-old girl suddenly starts to experience horrifying physical changes to her body.
INT’L SALES: Films Boutique

MEXICO
Tótem
Director: Lila Avilés
LOGLINE: On the birthday of her dying father, 7-year-old Sol observes the relationships between his bickering, loving, boisterous family.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Sideshow, Janus Films

MOLDOVA
Thunders
Director: Ioane Bobeica
LOGLINE: Rich-kid Victor and poor-girl Zinca form a forbidden friendship in the literal minefield of their village on the Transnistrian border.
PRODCO: YOUBESC Film

MONGOLIA
City of Wind
Director: Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir
LOGLINE: A teenage shaman and a girl with a heart condition form a tentative connection in wintry Ulaanbaatar.
INT’L SALES: Best Friend Forever

MONTENEGRO
Sirin
Director: Senad Šahmanović
LOGLINE: An American lawyer who changed her identity when she left the former Yugoslavia returns to her native Montenegro for an unusual inheritance case.
PRODCO: Cut-Up

MOROCCO
The Mother of All Lies
Director: Asmae El Moudir
LOGLINE: A documentary exploring memory and willful forgetfulness with respect to the  director’s fraught family history and that of her nation.
PRODCO: Insight Films

NAMIBIA
Under the Hanging Tree
Director: Perivi Katjavivi
A supernatural noir about an impetuous city cop assigned to a morbid case in a small desert town in Namibia.
PRODUCTION: Old Location Films

NEPAL
Halkara
Director: Bikram Sapkota
LOGLINE: An unemployed drunkard takes a job as a postman which brings him to remote villages and makes him confront his demons. 
PRODCO: Icefall Prods.

NETHERLANDS
Sweet Dreams
Director: Ena Sendijarević
LOGLINE: The white owner of a Dutch East Indies sugar plantation leaves his estate to his illegitimate son by his Indonesian housemaid.
INT’L SALES: Heretic

NIGERIA
Mami Wata
Director: CJ Obasi
LOGLINE: A remote West African village community worships the Mermaid-deity Mami Wata and is guided by healer Mama Efe, her daughter Zinwe and protégé Prisca.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Dekanalog

NORTH MACEDONIA
Housekeeping For Beginners
Director: Goran Stolevski
LOGLINE: A lively, rowdy family drama following the domestic, romantic and generational conflicts in a crowded queer household.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Focus Features

NORWAY
Songs of Earth
Director: Margreth Olin
LOGLINE: The director traces her octogenarian father’s connection to nature in his mountain home nestled amid Norway’s spectacular landscapes.
INT’L SALES: Cinephil

PAKISTAN
In Flames
Director: Zarrar Kahn
After the death of the family patriarch, a mother and daughter’s existence is ripped apart by figures from their past.
INT’L SALES: XYZ Films

PALESTINE
Bye Bye Tiberias
Director: Lina Soualem
LOGLINE: A doc following the director’s mother, Palestinian actress Hiam Abbas, as she and her daughter return to her native village.
INT’L SALES: Lightdox

PANAMA
Tito, Margot & Me
Director: Mercedes Arias, Delfina Vidal 
LOGLINE: A biodoc tracing the politicized love affair between high-profile Panamian politico Tito Arias and ballerina Margot Fonteyn.
PRODCO: Betesda Films

PARAGUAY
The Last Runway 2, Commando Yaguarete
Director: Armando Aquino, Mauricio Rial
LOGLINE: An investigator with the Ministry of the Interior goes to extreme lengths to rescue a kidnapped colleage in the action sequel to 2018’s “The Last Runway.”
PRODCO: Hei Films

PERU
The Erection of Toribio Bardelli 
Director: Adrián Saba
LOGLINE: The patriarch of a dysfunctional family faces his 70th birthday with one wish: to have an erection again. 
PRODCO: Flamingo Films

PHILIPPINES
The Missing
Director: Carl Joseph Papa
LOGLINE: Animated sci-fi in which an Filipino animator without a mouth goes to find his missing uncle and finds instead a strangely familiar alien.
PRODCO: Project8 Projects

POLAND
The Peasants
Director: DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman 
LOGLINE: A beautiful peasant girl’s romances cause havoc in her village in a hand-painted animation from the “Loving Vincent” team. 
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Sony Pictures Classics

PORTUGAL
Bad Living
Director: João Canijo
LOGLINE: Three generations of women run a failing Portuguese hotel and take out their increasing bitterness on each other.
INT’L SALES: The Match Factory

ROMANIA
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Director: Radu Jude
LOGLINE: A wild, unruly satire following an overworked, underpaid production assistant as she interviews candidates for a workplace safety video.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Mubi

SENEGAL
Banel and Adama
Director: Ramata-Toulaye Sy
LOGLINE: A young couple in love want to leave their village responsibilities behind but magic, superstition and dark secrets will not make it easy. 
INT’L SALES: Best Friend Forever

SERBIA
Because My Thoughts are Struggling
Director: Milorad Milinković
LOGLINE: Prince Mihailo struggles with a sense of duty to his people while a fatal conspiracy is being hatched against him. 
PRODCO: Living Pictures

SINGAPORE
The Breaking Ice
Director: Anthony Chen
LOGLINE: In a freezing China’s frozen Northeast, three young people navigate a gentle thawing love triangle. 
INT’L SALES: Rediance

SLOVAKIA
Photophobia
Director: Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík
LOGLINE: A docudrama tracing a day in the life of a Kharkiv family sheltering in subway tunnels from the Russian attacks.
PRODCO: Punkchart Films

SLOVENIA
Riders
Director: Dominik Mencej
LOGLINE: Inspired by “Easy Rider,” two friends embark on a road trip through recently post-Yugoslav Slovenia and Croatia on their mopeds. 
INT’L SALES: Staragara

SOUTH AFRICA
Music is My Life
Director: Mpumi Supa Mbele
LOGLINE: A biodoc of the late Joseph Shabalala, who attained worldwide fame contributing to Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album with his band, Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
INT’L SALES: Pop Twist Entertainment

SOUTH KOREA
Concrete Utopia
Director: Um Tae-hwa
LOGLINE: In the aftermath of a devastating Seoul earthquake, survivors hole up in a luxury apartment block to weather the aftermath. 
INT’L SALES: Lotte Entertainment

SPAIN
Society of the Snow
Director: J.A. Bayona
LOGLINE: The true story of the 1972 Andes plane crash and the 16 survivors who made it through  the 72 days untuil their rescue. 
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Netflix

SUDAN
Goodbye Julia
Director: Mohamed Kordofani
LOGLINE: Two women are fatefully connected despite coming from opposing sides of every social divide in pre-secession Khartoum.
INT’L SALES: MAD Solutions

SWEDEN
Opponent
Director: Milad Alami
LOGLINE: An Iranian refugee tries out for the Swedish national wrestling team in order to speed up his family’s asylum applications.
INT’L SALES: TriArt Film

SWITZERLAND
Thunder
Director: Carmen Jaquier
LOGLINE: A young novitiate discovers faith and desire can be linked  when she returns to her village following the mysterious death of her sister.
INT’L SALES: WTFilms

TAIWAN
Marry My Dead Body
Director: Cheng Wei-hao
LOGLINE: Supernatural comedy ensues when a straight cop is forced into a marriage with the ghost of a gay man.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Netflix

TAJIKISTAN
Melody
Director: Behrouz Sebt Rasoul 
LOGLINE: A music teacher in a children’s cancer center searches for 30 birds, to use their songs as the basis for a composition. 
INT’L SALES: Dreamlab Films

THAILAND
Not Friends
Director: Atta Hemwadee
LOGLINE: A high schooler cynically decides to make a short film about a deceased classmate for his colllege application. 
INT’L SALES: GDH 559

TUNISIA
Four Daughters
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
LOGLINE: The family void left by two teenage girls who joined ISIS is explored in a metafictional hybrid doc.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Kino Lorber

TURKEY
About Dry Grasses
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
LOGLINE: A misanthropic schoolteacher posted to remote Anatolia is accused of innappropriate behavior by a favored student. 
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Sideshow, Janus Films

UKRAINE
20 Days in Mariupol
Director: Mstyslav Chernov
LOGLINE: Documentary following a team of trapped Ukrainian journalists covering the war from withing the besieged city of Mariupol.
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: PBS Distribution

UNITED KINGDOM
The Zone of Interest
Director: Jonathan Glazer
LOGLINE: Next door to Auschwitz, the family of camp commandant Rudolf Höss go about their daily domestic routine. 
U.S. DISTRIBUTION: A24

URUGUAY
Family Album
Director: Guillermo Rocamora
LOGLINE: A teenager and his father set up a band to realize Dad’s lifelong ambition but soon generational tastes and tensions make it unsustainable.
PRODCO: Cimarrón Cine

VENEZUELA
The Shadow of the Sun
Director: Miguel Ángel Ferrer
LOGLINE: A young deaf man enlists his estranged elder brother in  fulfilling his dream of entering a singing competition. 
PRODCO: Magic Films, Multi Studios

VIETNAM
Glorious Ashes 
Director: Bùi Thạc Chuyên
LOGLINE: The lives of three women in a small Mekong Delta village intertwine as they deal with their difficult menfolk.
INT’L SALES: Skyline Media

YEMEN
The Burdened
Director: Amr Gamal
LOGLINE: When a struggling couple in Aden find they are pregnant again, they make a decision drastically at odds with Yemeni social norms.
INT’L SALES: Films Boutique